US military chiefs today said that the devastation in the Philippines was like a bomb had gone off and pledged the biggest ever humanitarian operation for a typhoon disaster.

Amid grim scenes of dozens of victims being buried in mass graves today, the flow of international aid to hundreds of thousands of desperate survivors of super-typhoon Haiyan was starting to pick up.

But fears were growing that food and water were not reaching many remote communities nearly a week after the storm struck, with some aid agencies scaling down operations because of looters and raids by armed men.

US Marine Brigadier-General Paul Kennedy promised a dramatic stepping-up of the aid mission, with thousands of troops, dozens of helicopters, and search and rescue crews being deployed to the stricken islands. “The formation of the joint task force and the arrival of the George Washington (US aircraft carrier), trips this up to a level probably never applied to a humanitarian crisis of this sort,” he told BBC radio.

He described the apocalyptic scenes of thousands of wooden homes swept away by a “wall of water”, concrete buildings mangled by the storm, power lines down and communities still water-logged. “It looks like a bomb went off,” he added.

America, Britain, Australia and a host of other nations were today in a race against time to reach many of the 545,000 people displaced by Haiyan, which tore across several islands in the eastern Philippines six days ago, killing thousands.

Most of the casualties were in Leyte province, its capital Tacloban, and Samar island. Many bodies were still lying alongside the roads in the city and others were buried under debris.

Outside the Tacloban City Hall, dozens of bodies in bags were lined up, waiting to be taken by truck to the cemetery outside the city. In the first such operation, 30 bodies in leaking black bags were lowered into graves without prayers being said. “I hope this is the last time I see something like this,” said Mayor Alfred Romualdez.

More than 2,350 people have officially been confirmed dead but that figure is expected to rise, perhaps significantly.

Baroness Amos, the UN humanitarian chief who toured Tacloban yesterday, said some 11.5 million people had been affected, which includes those who had lost their loved ones, were injured, and suffered damage to their homes, businesses or livelihoods.

“The situation is dismal. Tens of thousands of people are living in the open, exposed to rain and wind,” she said.

She told of the “extreme distress” that some communities had not yet been reached. The immediate priority for aid agencies over the next few days, she added, was to transport and distribute high energy biscuits and other food, tarpaulins, tents, clean drinking water and basic sanitation services.

Along with aid workers, Philippine soldiers on trucks were distributing rice and water. Chainsaws were used to cut debris from blocked roads, as thousands swarmed the airport, desperate to leave.

The first night flights — of C-130 transport planes —arrived since the typhoon struck, suggesting that air traffic control systems were now in place for a round the clock operation — a prerequisite for the massive relief operation needed.

Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said 70 per cent of the city’s 220,000 people were in need of emergency assistance, and that only 70 of the city’s 2,700 employees had been showing up for work.

He also stuck to an earlier estimate that 10,000 people had died in Tacloban even though President Benigno Aquino has said the final death toll would be closer to 2,500.